Why we need Apple to fail

Why we need Apple to fail

1of2Tim Cook, Apple CEO, raises his arms after announcing the Apple Watch during the Apple announcement at the Flint Center for the Performing Arts on Tuesday, September 9, 2014 in Cupertino, Calif.Photo: Lea Suzuki / The Chronicle

2of2All eyes will be on CEO Tim Cook as he starts the biggest sales campaign of his career for the Apple Watch, which he announced last fall.Photo: Lea Suzuki / The Chronicle

In America, the prevailing myth is that we cherish noble concepts like hard work, innovation and, most importantly, success.

But if that’s true, then why do we root for Apple to fail? Or more accurately, why do we need Apple to fail?

There’s a big, if opaque, difference between those two sentences. “Root to fail” is a kind of entertainment, the province of armchair pundits who view hating Apple more as sport than science. “Need to fail” implies more basic, innate psychology that impacts a greater swath of society, a deep human impulse that we might not even realize exists.

These questions come to mind as the Cupertino computing giant gets set to introduce the Apple Watch, the company’s first foray into a new product category under CEO Tim Cook.

Like any product launch, Apple Watch could very well fail, of course. But judging by the enormous success of the iPad, iPhone and iPod, Apple deserves the benefit of the doubt.

Until it doesn’t.

“The Apple Watch is going to flop,” CNN proclaimed.

“It lacks a defining must have feature,” said Techradar.

“Apple’s New Job: Selling a Smartwatch to an Uninterested Public,” a New York Times headline reads. (This one is particularly funny. Why would the public be interested in Apple Watch? Um ... because it’s Apple?)

I find it fascinating that people continue to doubt and disparage Apple’s products months before they arrive. Yet time and time again, Apple comes out a winner, and we repeat the cycle again.

I’m not suggesting Apple is beyond reproach. But after nearly 15 years of blockbuster products, Apple doomsdayers start to sound more like Chicken Littles.

What drives this instinctive recoil? One theory is that Apple is just too big and powerful.

Since the founding of the country, Americans naturally distrust large institutions, whether government or business, with lots of centralized power. Founder Steve Jobs, who passed away in 2011, was famously known to throw his weight around. Nobody likes a bully.

Or maybe we’re just jealous of Apple’s success.

But envy is an intense emotion we normally reserve for people with direct connections to our lives, not faceless corporations.

In 2008, two researchers from Texas Christian University attempted to connect envy with evolution and natural selection. Humans must compete in a world of limited resources — whether for food or a mate — and envy provides the necessary motivation to beat the other guy.

Envy, they argued, has been hardwired into our brains over thousands of years as a means to survival. So even though Apple’s success doesn’t literally threaten us, people instinctively realize there is only so much money and prestige in the world, and we don’t want one company to hog it.

Not all envy is bad. Envy can push people to improve and innovate — to make us want to emulate someone’s success rather than resent it.

But it’s a more appealing story when people overcome adversity to obtain it. Hence our love affair with the underdog, that skinny, slow quarterback nobody wanted until he proved them wrong with an improbable championship. We admire success, but only if people “earn it.”

Apple has not failed in a very long time. Setbacks? Sure. But Apple has enjoyed an unparalleled string of success since it introduced the iPod in 2002 — so much success that the company makes it look easy. We start to imagine that Apple thinks it is entitled to success.

Why do we need Apple to fail? Because we desperately need to connect with the company at some basic level.

Failure and adversity are ever present in our lives. It’s hard to relate to something that seemingly never fails.

Thomas Lee is a San Francisco Chronicle business columnist. E-mail: tlee@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ByTomLee

Thomas Lee is a business columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle. He is the author of “Rebuilding Empires,” (Palgrave Macmillan/St. Martin’s Press), a book about the future of big box retail in the digital age. Lee has previously written for the Star Tribune (Minneapolis), St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Seattle Times and China Daily USA. He also served as bureau chief for two Internet news startups: MedCityNews.com and Xconomy.com.